Parliamentary Law Making And Law Reform

Question 1

The Legislative Process

Question 2

Pre legislative stage

Answer 2

Types of bills
Private : affects small groups and individuals
Public : affects whole population
Private member : Backbench MPs make suggestions for law.

Question 3

Whitehall stage

Answer 3

Green paper : A consultation paper containing Government new ideas for law and the public can comment on it.
White paper : Document stating the Government’s proposals.

Question 4

First reading

Answer 4

Title of bill is read out. No discussion.

Question 5

Second Reading

Answer 5

Main debate happens. Minster of bill explains objectives and aims. Answer questions. The speaker control debates. A vote is taken.

Question 6

Commitee stage

Answer 6

Bill scrutinised by 16 - 50 Mps. Majority represent government. Others may be experts or have interest.

Question 7

Report stage

Answer 7

Report back to house of commons or lords with proposals to change the bill.

Question 8

Third reading

Answer 8

Final vote. No changes except SPaG.

Question 9

Repeat process

Answer 9

Bill goes through the same stage in the other house. Can result in a ping pong effect. House of lord power is limited by parliament act 1911 and 1949.

Question 10

Royal Assent

Answer 10

Monarch’s approval of the bill under Royal Assent Act 1967.

Question 11

Advantages of legislative process

Question 12

Long and through process

Answer 12

8 stages a bill has to go through to become an Act meaning there should be no errors.
Rule of law (certain and ascertainable)
All debates are televised and laws can be found online.

Question 13

Democratically elected

Answer 13

House of common has 650 MPs selected by public which make them accountable for their actions.
House of common has power of house of lords and can overrule them by the use of parliament act 1911 and 1949.

Question 14

Allows the public to voice thier opinion on the law

Answer 14

Public able to contact local Mps about any issues. They have say in the new bill being proposed.
Pre legislative process consults interested parties and experts which makes the bill proposal efficient.

Question 15

Allows others to make law

Answer 15

Parliament can give power to other bodies to make laws on their behalf. (Delegated legislation)
Means law is written by appropriate bodies such as local authorities or ministers.

Question 16

Disadvantages of legislative process

Question 17

Lack of clarity

Answer 17

Use of obscure language makes the law hard to understand. Judges often use statutory interpretation to understand what is written.
Public fail to understand the law which makes unascertainable and go against the rule of law.

Question 18

Time consuming

Answer 18

On average it takes 18 month for an Act of Parliament to be written which is a long time for an area of law to be clarified
Long process means only the government ideas go through parliament meaning public / other political parties are not represented.

Question 19

Not representative of a cross section society

Answer 19

House of lords are law lords who are generally privately educated white males.
Long hours that parliament has to work discriminates against women and child. Business is done in evening . Ethic minorities are not represented.

Question 20

Lack of accessibility

Answer 20

So many acts of parliament the public struggles to find out which one are in power and which aren’t.
Difficult to find out all legislation on a single topic as they may be consolidated by bringing various acts together into a single act of parliament.

Question 21

Influences on Parliament to reform the law.

Question 22

Political influence

Answer 22

where one person takes advantage of a position of power over another person.
Conservative 2019 : get brexit done
Labour 2019 : time for real change for the many not the few

Question 23

Public opinion / media

Answer 23

Plays a large role in bringing public opinion to the government’s attention as they let them know about the public s opinion.
Sarah Payne : allow public access to identities of child sex offenders. Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme 2011.
Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 : Pitbull attacking children. Conservaties pressured to pass down act.

Question 24

Pressure groups

Answer 24

Groups that have particular interest and try to bring matters to the attention to public and government so the law will be changed.
Dunblane Disaster is where 16 children and a teacher shot dead in a school gym in Scotland. After the dunblane disaster, snowdrop campaign happen which led to the Firearm Acts 1997.

Question 25

Sectional pressure groups

Answer 25

Group that represents the interest of particular section of society.
The Law Society : represent the interest of solicitors
Greenpeace : sustainability and enviornmental change.

Question 26

Lobbyist

Answer 26

Where people try to persuade individual MPs to support thier cause
Sydney Silverman was lobbied and sucessfully abolish the death penality.

Question 27

Law Commission

Answer 27

Is a full time reform body who work part time to suggest which laws need reviewing through repeal, consolidation or codification.
Criminal Attempt Act 1981

Question 28

The Law Commission Intro

Answer 28

Previous law reform bodies were only part time. They were set up the Law Commission Act 1965 and amended by Law Commission Act 2009.
‘To identify areas of law where reform is necessary , codify the law , repeal obsolete laws , consolidate and modernise the law.’

Question 29

Composition of law commission

Answer 29

Chairmen : High Court Judge or Appeal Court judge appointed for up to three years.
4 Law Commissioners
Chief Executive and 20 members of Government Legal Service.

Question 30

What do the law commission do?

Answer 30

Repeal : Law Commission will identify old Act which are no longer used so that Parliament can cancel them.
Consolidation : Bringing together of a number of acts on a single topic into one large Act.
Codification : Bringing all laws on one topic together into one source.

Question 31

How the law commission suggest reform?

Answer 31

Refer : Lord Chancellor on behalf of the Government may refer topic to the commission.
Research : Commission research area of law that felt in need of reform and then a consultation paper is published seeking people views.
Respond : After the response to consulation paper , the commission will draw up postive plan for reform. If government accepts report it will go through the parliamentary stages before it becomes law.

Question 32

Advantages of Parliamentary influences

Question 33

Success of Law Commission

Answer 33

There has been an improvement to how laws are looked at. For example, the Law Commission Act 2009 requires Lord Chancellor to report to Parliament yearly on the Government’s progress in making reports.

This has meant for success for LC such as the reform of voluntary manslaughter under the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 which helped make law more applicable to modern medical knowledge.

Question 34

Pressure Groups have a large membership

Answer 34

Due to the large following of pressure groups, it allows them to get the voices heard from the Government by doing peaceful protest such as Greenpeace spreading awareness of the environment.

This means that they are very influential and may garner the public respect and praise causing the group to be larger and allows them to have greater chance to have their cause to be realised.

Question 35

Media causing the law to match the public opinion

Answer 35

This can seen through the Dunblane disaster where 16 students and a teacher were killed in the school gym in Scotland which led to the Snowdrop Campaign. This is causes the government to change the law to match the majority of the public opinion.

However, despite the majority of the public liking the idea of having an license to buy a gun, the minority of people disagree and wasn’t being represented.

Question 36

Lobbyist raises issues in Parliamentary debate

Answer 36

The politicians get to hear the general public opinion through the lobbyist which ensures that the public opinion are being represented and accounted for.

Furthermore, this allows strong causes to presented to Parliament which they can bring to the Government which may causes them to make new laws / delegated legislation to solve the issues the public are facing.

Question 37

Disadvantages of Parliamentary Influences

Question 38

Pressure groups can be quite forceful and may not represent the majority of people.

Answer 38

Some pressure groups may have conflicting ideas as they may have views and interest which may cause their protest to be more violent and aggressive.

As result the protest being more violent and aggressive may cause the pressure groups use their influence and large following to promote negative views and hate speech.

Question 39

Lobbyist pays MPs to raise their issues

Answer 39

This would means that the more wealthy and successful lobbyist would be more influential than the general public which make the debates less democratic.

Furthermore, paying off MPs in order to put your views through Parliament can regarded as bribery which is illegal.

Question 40

The media causing the public to respond quickly to changes which means the laws made are not thought out.

Answer 40

For example, when Pitbull dogs were attacking children were publicise by the media cause the conservative government to pass the Dangerous Dog Act 1991 which had some breeds that were harmless at time to be dangerous.

The media can be channelling their own views on the Government’s actions which may influence the public opinion and may cause panic and attention.

Question 41

Political influence : Having the new Government repealing old law set by the Government before.

Answer 41

This may be seen as an abuse of power and authority as they can remove laws that they don’t agree with which may affect society negatively.

However, by removing old laws set by old Government may means that the law is more modern and is more applicable to changes in the current society.